Biding Time
by 3iris
Summary: Lanie and Kate having a drink and talking about men, Josh and Castle in particular.  Just a one shot, and mostly dialogue.


"OK. Spill. Now. Tell me what is wrong with this one." Lanie leaned back into the plush booth, hands clasped and fingers steepled in front of her. She regarded Beckett with the knowing eye of a best friend that had been sitting on the sidelines, observing one train wreck of an attempted relationship after another, while painstakingly biting her tongue the whole time.

"Josh?" She looked innocently at Lanie.

"Yes, unless you are being greedy, and hiding another beautiful masculine speciman from the rest of us deserving females."

"Nothing is wrong with him. That's just it. That's what is wrong with him. Nothing." Kate slid down in her seat to match Lanie's posture. She positioned her elbow on the back of her booth, and used her hand to prop up her head, absently stirring her drink with the other.

Lanie laughed at her obvious frustration with the situation. "And that's bad?"

"No, but . . ."

She pointed the little toothpick with an olive dangling off the end at her despondant friend accusingly. "But you want something to be wrong with him, so you have a reason to leave him at the curb."

"I like him. He is sweet, thoughtful, romantic, . . ."

"and very, very hot."

"hot, sexy, funny . . ."

"It sounds like you have a real problem on your hands. . ." Lanie dropped the olive back into her glass and leaned forward, looking at Kate closely, inspecting her with one raised eyebrow. She felt sorry for her. She was so confused. She looked absolutely lost.

"Something is wrong with me." She sighed, and leaned her elbows on the table. She finished her drink in one gulp, and then surprised them both by laughing.

"I know exactly what is wrong with you, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you." She paused, shaking her head at the lack of response. "So, what did you and Dr. Sexy do last night? You said he had a surprise for you. Anything that would make me curse my miserable, pathetic love life?"

"If I told you, you would hate me as much as I hate myself."

"I already hate you for not sharing. What was his surprise?"

"He made me dinner on his boat. On top of everything else, he is also a good cook."

"And . . ."

"And he showed me how to navigate the boat."

"Is that codeword for something dirty? If not, I'm getting bored already."

"No, but it was a rush, maneuvering that big thing and keeping it on course."

"Still sounds dirty to me, but I'll take your word for it." They both laughed again, and suddenly Lanie could tell that Kate was back to being serious.

"He said it was the only place he could think of where he could have me all to himself."

"So he knows he has competition? What does he have to say about your writer boy?"

". . . to find out if fighting for me would do any good, or if he should back off and let me resolve my issues."

"Issues? Now, if I was looking for a fight, that would have been a good jumping off point for me. That just pisses me off. You have issues because you are not worshipping his god like body? What did you say?"

Kate almost laughed at how quickly her friend got fired up. "I didn't know what to say. I told him I wanted to keep getting to know him better. . ."

Lanie shook her head disapprovingly. "Slowly, until you make up your mind what you are going to do about Castle."

"Lanie . . ."

"Kate . . ." She mocked Kate's tone. "It's true. I know it. You know it. Even Josh knows it. It's pretty much common knowledge around the precinct."

"Great. That's just great to know."

"Are you denying it? You don't want to go too far with Josh, get too wrapped up in that relationship, until you know, without a doubt, that Castle is off the table."

"Castle _is_ off the table."

"Maybe. For now. You know as well as I do that, eventually, he will realize Gina was a bad move. Then what? You don't want to have a ring on your finger, and be the future Mrs. Dr. Sexy when that happens. So you are biding your time."

"You make it sound so simple." She sighed, closing her eyes. She thought about how easy it was when the lines were clearly drawn. She was the detective, focused only on her job. He was the writer, mostly immature, sometimes inappropriate, and focused on writing his next million dollar best selling novel. She didn't take him seriously, and he didn't expect her to.

"It is."

"It's not. This is not about whether or not he is with Gina. It's about giving up somebody who cares about me, who is dependable and trustworthy, ..."

"...and hot."

"...for somebody who may or may not be there down the road, depending on his interest level and attention span."

Lanie lowered her voice, trying to project the seriousness of what she was about to say. "Somebody who is crazy about you, and also pretty hot. You were ready to trust him once."

"And look what happened." Her voice was barely a whisper, and it was apparent that the sting of rejection that night was still lingering. She was scared, and Lanie was almost positive that Kate would not go back down that path again and put herself in the same vulnerable position.

She put her hand over Kate's. "He broke your heart, but don't you see you are still approaching it the same way? You can't keep a safe bet waiting in the wings. Either you let Castle in, give him a chance to love you, and you take a chance on him by letting yourself love him back, or you walk away. This time for good."


End file.
